Sweet, moist, and absolutely delicious, this frosted homemade carrot cake banana bread recipe is perfect for a healthy breakfast or dessert!
If you’re looking for a wonderful springtime recipe to serve family or guests, this classic carrot cake banana bread is always a huge crowd pleaser.
The recipe can be low fat, low calorie, oil free, gluten free, dairy free, egg free, and vegan. And it’s super easy to make, using ingredients you already have on hand.
You may also like Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
If only carrot cake were always in season.
I’d be so happy posting carrot themed recipes all year round.
But since possibly no one else besides me wants to eat carrot cake in December (or maybe you do too?), I try to pack as much carrot cake as I possibly can into the few weeks between St. Patrick’s Day and Easter.
Because I’ve already posted carrot cake oatmeal, waffles, and Healthy Carrot Cake, this year I decided to turn the flavor into banana bread, one of my other favorite flavors.
I knew the recipe would be good before even tasting it. After all, it’s carrot cake AND banana bread!
Above – watch the carrot cake banana bread recipe video
Carrot cake banana bread ingredients
To make the recipe, you will need flour, cinnamon, shredded carrot, pure vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sweetener and milk of choice, and mashed banana.
While the carrot cake banana bread is completely wonderful on its own, one of my favorite things about carrot cake is the frosting.
For vegan carrot cake banana bread, choose your favorite dairy free milk of choice. The carrot banana loaf is already naturally egg free.
Types of flour that work include spelt flour, oat flour, white all purpose flour, or some all purpose gluten free flours. Feel free to experiment with others, although I do not recommend using coconut flour or almond flour.
You can frost with softened Coconut Butter or about half a cup of the homemade vegan cream cheese frosting recipe from my Vegan Cinnamon Rolls.
I sprinkled crushed walnuts and shredded carrot over the top to decorate.
How to make carrot cake banana bread
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and grease a 9×5 loaf pan or line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients and stir well. You can add half a cup of crushed walnuts or shredded coconut if you wish.
Whisk all remaining ingredients, including the shredded carrot and banana, in a separate bowl. Or you can technically save time and whisk them straight into the dry ingredients to form a batter. Do not overmix.
Smooth the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Place on the oven’s center rack, and bake for forty five minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the carrot banana loaf comes out mostly clean.
Let the bread cool completely before going around the sides with a knife. Invert onto a large serving plate, and frost if desired.
Baking and storage tips
Loosely cover with cloth or paper towels, and store on the counter or in the refrigerator overnight.
The taste and texture of this bread are better the next day, because excess moisture will evaporate, resulting in a fluffier loaf.
After one day, it is best to refrigerate leftovers for three or four days in a covered container. Or slice and freeze for up to three months.
For low carb, try this Keto Carrot Cake
Carrot Cake Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups white, spelt, or oat flour (or try this Almond Flour Banana Bread)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- optional 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1 1/2 cup mashed overripe banana (for banana free, try this Vegan Carrot Cake)
- 1/2 cup finely shredded carrot
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup, honey, or agave
- 1/4 cup milk of choice or water
- 1/4 cup oil or additional water
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- optional crushed walnuts, coconut, etc.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9×5 pan, or line with parchment. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. If desired, you can add 1/2 cup crushed walnuts and/or a handful of shredded coconut. Whisk liquid ingredients—including carrot and banana—in separate bowl. Pour wet into dry, and stir to form a batter. Smooth into prepared pan. Bake on the center rack 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. Let cool. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Taste and texture are much better the second day (and even better the third day as it gets sweeter). Leftovers can be sliced and frozen for up to a month. If you want to frost the bread, I included a few links to some frosting recipes above in the post, or you can use about 1/2 cup softened coconut butter, sweetened if desired.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Healthy Banana Recipes
I made this today and it is Sooooo good. Not too sweet. Absolutely delicious.
How would I go about substituting raw sugar for the liquid sweetener in this recipe? (I’m running low on honey and maple syrup is crazy expensive in Australia.)
We haven’t tried it so really can’t say for sure, but maybe google how to make a simple syrup from sugar?
Jason
I have successfully substituted water for maple syrup in her other banana bread recipes. Just replace it with a mixture of sugar and water. Add sugar to water and taste if sweet enough, and then measure out the amount called for in the recipe.
Or you can try doing what I did, and simply using water instead. I enjoyed it but I know most people wouldn’t share my enthusiasm.
Yeah, it worked fine to just make simple syrup with the raw sugar. It actually tastes CRAZY similar to maple syrup.
Awesome recipe. I made it into muffins for portion control reasons and it turned out very good. Not overly sweet which is what I appreciate about it. I got 12 muffins out of this recipe and figured out the calories for each is 125 (using 1% milk and canola oil). Thanks! I just recently discovered your site so I’m excited to try other recipes.
Good idea! Could you please tell how you adjusted the time? I am assuming it should be less for muffins compared to a whole loaf…
Can I just say that these recipes have been my saving grace! Healthy desserts are definitely the way forward and have helped me so much with maintaining my weight loss!
I have made the carrot banana bread and I’m hooked!! I’m a huge fan of your recipes and the book never leaves my book stand in kitchen…
Thank you Katie for sharing your creativity!! ?
This doesn’t really have much to do with the recipe, but I am planning on ordering the “Hello Breakfast” cookbook. I have heard some readers buying a copy but it came without the extra recipes (i.e. vegan mozzarella cheese) and I was wondering if there is a way to avoid that without e-mailing me the extra ones. That cheese just looks so good! Just don’t want to put you all through the extra trouble. Thanks!
Hi! The bonus pack should go out automatically whenever someone gets the ebook, and it’s just getting caught in spam for some people. To make 100% sure you get it, I can send it out manually to you if you want. Would that work? Then you wouldn’t have to worry about it possibly getting caught in a spam filter somewhere on the web :).
Jason (media relations)
I was so excited to make this, but it turned out so disappointing! It’s really not very much of a carrot cake at all; after all the talk of how much you love carrot cake, the only flavour I got was banana. It’s an okay banana bread, but there’s really nothing carrot-cake-like about it. And I even doubled the spices. If I try this again, maybe I’ll find a way to double the carrot as well or something.
No offense, but if you wanted carrot cake instead of banana bread then why not just make her actual carrot cake recipe instead of making banana bread and then being confused that it tastes like banana bread?
This. Was. Amazing.
That is all.
I’ve made this bread twice in the past week and it was fantastic! I added in the coconut and cut down the maple syrup to 2 tablespoons, and also added chopped dates and used 5 bananas. I also used whole wheat flour, which absorbed a lot of liquid so I had to add in a bit more cashew milk. It turned out beautifully, thank you so much for the wonderful recipe!
Hi Katie,
I tried your carrot cake banana bread as I loved the idea of combining carrot and banana and it turned out wonderful!
I am quite new to vegan baking and I was looking for a recipe that would give a moist, fluffy cake, just like the (non-vegan)cakes my mom used to bake when I was young. And: success!
Making the batter was not difficult and your baking instructions were very clear. My first ever carrot cake looked perfect and tasted delicious!
Sending you a picture (without frosting).
Many thanks for sharing your wonderful recipes!
That picture looks so wonderful!
Can I geind oats for oat flour?